Where does Plastic come from?

[edro]

Everything around us now a days is plastic. I mean EVERYTHING.

Where does it come from? I mean this in a few ways.

1. I know it comes froms oil and stuff, but how?

2. How do they ship plastic that goes to molding facilities? (like in huge blocks of plastic, or in pellets or what)
Like say a pop bottle factory. How do they get the plastic and how do they melt it down before being molded?

3. Just exactly how CHEAP is plastic?

 

[StageLeft]

Plastic is free,
plastic is nice,
it comes from a tree,
and can hold your pee.

 

[PsychoAndy]

<< Everything around us now a days is plastic. I mean EVERYTHING.

Where does it come from? I mean this in a few ways.

1. I know it comes froms oil and stuff, but how?

2. How do they ship plastic that goes to molding facilities? (like in huge blocks of plastic, or in pellets or what)
Like say a pop bottle factory. How do they get the plastic and how do they melt it down before being molded?

3. Just exactly how CHEAP is plastic? >>



2.) I THINK that it comes in little pellets, called resin? Not sure though, resin could be another substance, i remember this from 6th grade for some reason

 

[minendo]

1,030,000 results

 

[astriy]

they heat the oil in big towers where it settles into layers gasoline, plastic, asphalt etc. Since plastic is a byproduct of gasoline, which is produced in giant quantities, plastic is dirt cheap. I don't know what they transport it in, but I've seen pellets in a factory where they have molds and stuff, so that would be my guess

 

[astriy]

<< 1,030,000 results >>



thank you for that useless tidbit

Hey look I can type stuff into google too!

 

[edro]

<<

<< 1,030,000 results >>





Hey look I can type stuff into google too! >>



HAHA, LOL!

Nice key word!

 

[amdskip]

Plastic is shipped in closed railroad hoppers like grain cars.

 

[minendo]

<<

<< 1,030,000 results >>



thank you for that useless tidbit

Hey look I can type stuff into google too! >>


You are fvcking hilarious. <--- Don't click me.

 

[astriy]

hmm, I better go before this thread degrades from namecalling to hairpulling and shin-kicking

 

[astriy]

nah! I know you are but what am I ?!

 

[minendo]

<< nah! I know you are but what am I ?! >>


Well everyone already knows I am a moron, but thanks for the tons of links that confirm it. I will use your links to become the "Master of all Morons."

 

[rudder]

3. Just exactly how CHEAP is plastic?

Cheap? Do you have children? Have you ever been to toys r' us? plastic crap is not cheap.

 

[astriy]

<< 3. Just exactly how CHEAP is plastic?

Cheap? Do you have children? Have you ever been to toys r' us? plastic crap is not cheap. >>



nah the plastic's cheap - they just jack up the price 'cause they know you'll buy it just to get the kids to shut up.

 

[astriy]

<<

<< nah! I know you are but what am I ?! >>


Well everyone already knows I am a moron, but thanks for the tons of links that confirm it. I will use your links to become the "Master of all Morons." >>



yeah I kinda figured that since you spelled Imprisoning wrong in your tagline.

 

[dullard]

<< 1,030,000 results >>



Now lets suppose Edro13 spent 1 second on each site. Thus he will take 12 days to read that all (also assuming no breaks). Basically 1,000,000 of those are worthless junk that is completely unrelated to Edro13's question. He knows search sites exist, but they give far far too much unrelated information; it makes them nearly useless. So instead Edro13 takes 3 minutes to ask us a little question. Anyone can do a search - few can get an answer to what they want within a reasonable timeframe.

Welcome to Anandtech, Edro13.

 

[minendo]

<<

<< 1,030,000 results >>



Now lets suppose Edro13 spent 1 second on each site. Thus he will take 12 days to read that all (also assuming no breaks). Basically 1,000,000 of those are worthless junk that is completely unrelated to Edro13's question. He knows search sites exist, but they give far far too much unrelated information; it makes them nearly useless. So instead Edro13 takes 3 minutes to ask us a little question. Anyone can do a search - few can get an answer to what they want within a reasonable timeframe.

Welcome to Anandtech, Edro13. >>


Fine sounds fair to me. So now every member here at AT should give up on seaches and just spend "3 minutes" to post here at AT. I'll never have to do a reasearch paper again.

 

[tsunek]

plastic is a polymer of organic molecules most of which are produced from petroleum

 

[etech]

astriy

Nope, plastic is not refined from oil. The basic building blocks are derived from hydrocarbons, one of the main ones being ethelyene. The ethelyene is introduced into a reactor where it is polyermized into polyethelyene(long chain molecules). Depending on the variables of the reaction including the catalyst, heat and pressure you get plastics with different properties.

 

[ElFenix]

ancient swamps

 

[XZeroII]

Plastic is brought to us today by the number 12 and the letter 'V'.

 

[crypticlogin]

<< 3. Just exactly how CHEAP is plastic? >>


Within the past ten years, the plastics manufacturing (not processing) market took a nose dive in terms of volume price. Ten years ago, a plastics manufacturer could've built a 5000 employee plant from the ground up, transported the resin to processors by rail, and made a profit within three years. Importing resin was expensive and timely. Today, it's cheaper to ship the materiel from overseas then transport by rail... and you're still not guaranteed to come out ahead.

Plastics industry profitability is now in the processing of resin, not the manufacture of. To give you a brief idea, supermarket produce bags. Total production costs for one roll of the bags is about $0.10 with the breakdown being about $0.005 of that for the resin and $0.095 of that to process the resin into bags.

Moral of the story: buy plastic. Yeah, uh buy mucho plastics.

(An uncle worked for a plastics manufacturer up until last year)